Signs, Promises and Actions

Readings for the first Sunday in Lent: 5th March 2006:Gen 9:8-17, Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15
I have been having a discussion with my friend about what one should do during Lent.
We are both agreed that Lent can be ghastly, and that we arrive at Easter feeling like crap! (if you'll pardon the expression...however accurate)
I said to my church family last week whilst asking them to fill in a "Promise Card" for the one thing they were going to do to strengthen their relationship with God during the next 6 weeks
"If you believe that you should do nothing.....then put "Nothing""
I have the strong conviction that some of us should take a step back
and enjoy the time with God
rather than further burden ourselves.
This is not an invitation to laziness
but rather a commitment to be serious about the quality of our relationship.
Lent is not about quantity, it is about quality.
It is not how much we can do
but how open we can be, how close we can get
and this may mean that rather than doing more
we should do less.
Signs
God signs to us quite clearly
how he intends to deal with us
And we hear about signs this morning and throughout Lent
The story of Noah concludes with the ushering in of a new age
and the sign that we see is the rainbow.
I often am reminded of this when ever I see a rainbow.
This could just be a pious remembering
but we are being invited to acknowledge something more
The sign speaks to us of a promise
And the promise call us to action.
God's promise is that he will draw us into a new covenant
this new relationship with God
is not one in which we are in danger of being destroyed
it is rather one in which our life is affirmed
and we come to understand that God does not stand in ambiguous relationship to us
but that we are living in union with God.
The action that this might draw out of us:
If God is in union with us, then we should live as if we are in union with God.
Yet, we often live as if God is distant and uninvolved with our world.
Is this a convenient way for us to distance ourselves from God so that we don't have to do anything?
The sort of action that this might draw out of us
is a life lived in a spirit of active faith
a life lived in constructive harmony with our environment
The Great Sign
Overarching these six weeks of Lent
is the greatest sign of all
The Cross.
It is the sign of God's love and God's desire that we should be reconciled with Him.
The promise that God makes to us
is that when we are drawn into the crucified life
then he will draw us close.
God will be close to us, and we will be close to God.
We will understand forgiveness, and love
and we will understand that these come at great cost.
Our lives are the context for much forgiveness, love and reconciliation
the cost to us will be great
the reward to us will be infinite.
At a seminar this week about Rape and Child Sexual Abuse
we got round to talking about whether or not forgiveness was a goal of counselling
Our trainer was sceptical,
I (because I believe it to be true) was saying that we cannot avoid the issue of how we forgive.
Now is not the time to repeat the argument,
but rather to note that a colleague observed
that Forgiveness comes at great cost....this is the message of the Cross
Revelation
Signs, whether rainbow or cross, are manifold
they reveal to us God's promise
I am in union with you
I love you
As we engage with them they also reveal their depth
as we live them
they open their meaning...
...these are not the only signs
we have
you may like to reflect this week on your own personal signs
...your children, your wife
your church,
your favourite place
....what do they promise us
and what action do they seek to elicit and draw out of us.

Seeing it as it really is

Readings for Sunday 26th February. 2 Ki 2:1-12; Ps 50:1-6; 2 Cor 4:3-12; Mark 9:2-9. The Last Sunday After Epiphany

Well we have finally got to that point
where Lent is just around the corner
almost, but not quite, as late as it could be.
For most of the world, of course,
Lent means nothing.
Although in many ways like the great Moslem fast of Ramadan
Lent is probably less well known.
It is for Christians a time when we get our act together
There are many traditional ways of doing this
and they are not without merit
But let me draw yoiu attention to three of the more obvious ways
for Christians to "get their act together".
Prayer
At the heart of any Christian's life
is our relationship with God
so we will want during these 40 days
to try and strengthen our relationship with God.
like any relationship it is strengthened
through quality time.
If we want our relationship to get better then we need to commit to it.
Lent gives us a focus time...less than 6 weeks
so it is not a long commitment
and we find each year that it is worth it.
I suggest...three E's
Each day-make a commitment to pray at least once each day
The Lord's Prayer, a time of quiet or a short time to pray for someone special
Each week- as part of our commitment to build up each other
let's endeavour to make each of the Sundays in Lent
a time when we will be there
Extra- I do not think prayer is about volume or length of time
It is about "quality" time not "quantity"
So what I need to give during Lent
is extra quality.
This might mean making sure that we give proper attention and not pray on the run
It might mean keeping a little Lenten journal
or setting aside a deliberate time each weekto just be together with God.

Giving
The one thing people about Lent is "giving things up"
this giving things up...lollies, alcohol, meat, bread or what ever
breeds a little space and a little discipline.
It allows us to be more conscious of thos who have not
and also to redirect some of our resources through giving

• Charity
• The Poor
• Mission
• Jerusalem
• The Church

What appeals to you? Make it a special 6 week project.

Service
Our relationship with God is fostered through our care and service of others
Lest we think that Lent is a narrowly religious exercise
or even that Christianity is "narrowly religious"
we balance our spiritual exercises with our service and ministry.
This is the mistake that Peter makes on the mountain today
Seeing Jesus for who he really is ...the glorified on of God....
he doesn't know what to do.
We could think of a thousand things
let's tell others
let's inspire each other
let commit to follow him to the end
But Peter says "No!! Let's build a shrine"
And Jesus has to say No!
There is suffering to be shared
there is work to be done.
So where will you serve this Lent.
I suggest that the words we need to guide us are these:
Personal
Responsive
& Unconditional
We need to respond in such a way that we are caring for a real person
and not an idea, or a bureaucracy
It will in a practical sense involve us with another person.
We need to be responding to real needs
That is doing what God want us to do
and not what we think we should do.
So often what we choose to do
serves our own needs
instead of those of others,
we do what makes us look good and successful
instead of what attends to the needs of another.
Finally our service should be unconditional.
We help a sick person go the doctor
so that they might get well
Not so that they might come to church.
We take food round to the family who have lost their father
because they need food
not so that they will do it to us in return.

Prayer Giving and Service.
Do not think you can do everything or the impossible.
Have a think about what you can do,
write it down
so you can promise yourself
and promise God

Do not be deceived into thinking Lent is a pious few weeks
rather accept it as a challenge to become more deeply in love
with God
and those who he calls us to serve.

Night's middle

If I could live at night's middle
instead of running rather ragged
and drilling at the day
then my vision would be brighter
and the voice of God heard clear.
This morning, even,
the moon's fullest beam
shone bright as day.
total stillness
haunted dead trousers on the line
until the softness
of the Spirit's coolest breath
walked them gently
and I shuddered, not with fear
but with delight
as my too warm breast was cooled
by the lightest of touches.
Who can faint while such a zephyr
reminds me of my own aliveness.

I did not rise.
almost disciplined
to stay in bed
to the point of pain
lest, in embracing
the middle of the night,
I devoured the day
which still demands my full attention.
And so, I crept
as early as I could
to put pen to paper.
visions fleeing,
God's voice whispering
"Wiedersehen!"
and by a few lines,
the rising of the sun,
the plaintive magpie
and the start of the traffic
night's middle
had gone.

Decisive and Cooperative Action

Reflections for Sunday 19th February-Epiphany 7- Readings for today: Is 43:18-25, Ps 41, 2 Cor 1:16-22; Mark 2:1-12

Perhaps my commonest experience of healing
is people asking for prayer for others
In these days of electronic communication
I even get a steady stream of requests
for our parish to pray for the sick
It may be Manilla, or Edinburgh, Tocumwal
or somewhere on the Mississippi...
...we are happy to join our prayers with other.

It is important that we not think
that sending as many emails
or asking as many prayer groups
or individuals to pray
is what makes for effective healing.

this story points us in rather a different direction.
People bring a paralysed man to Jesus
and lower him down through the roof
so that he can get close to Jesus.
There is a degree of controversy about what is going on.

The readings from the Hebrew Scriptures (Is 43 & Ps 41)
point us to the fact that healing
is ever with us and that it is God's will
to heal and forgive
St Paul reminds us that in ministry
it is important that we are firm and committed
we join our commitment to God's action
and say "Yes!".

Against this background
the simple, if not dramatic story
gives us a process
about how we bring others to Jesus.

Corporate
Indeed the first thing we note
is that this is what freinds do.
We support each other.
Sometimes we are slow to respond to this call
but this story reminds us
that relationship
also establishes
responsibility.
It may be that we have to be reminded of this.
relationship
true relationship
will mean not just that we have fun together
but at times our primary responsibility
is to be there to carry and support.

few days and full of trouble
In Job we are reminded that we live short lives
that are "full of trouble"
perhaps this is poetic licence
but it is not without some import.
Things do not always go in a straight forward way
what do we do at the hurdles?

In a shallow world
we could drop everything and give up.
Or we can persist.

There are logistical questions:
How do we get our friend to Jesus?
Answer: We will need more than one of us to do it
How do we get through the crowd?
Answer: We will need to be creative
How do we get through the solid roof?
Answer: certain traditional obstacles may need to be dismantled

I don't want to suggest this is the defined process for all problems
rather to note that
part of our commitment
will be to engage with the solution completely
Half-hearted wishful thinking will not be sufficient.
God is inviting us to act radically on our faith
and part of that movement will be
to develop the skill to act decisively and co-operatively.

At the feet of Jesus
The key part to the whole process will be
getting the sick person to Jesus.
This is both figurative...maybe a healing service is a good idea...
but what is critical
is that friends trying to enable healing
are seeking to get the sick person
to encounter the risen Lord.

In this story the forgiveness of sins
needs to be proclaimed.
It is our responsibility
to make sure that that happens.

How can we help the sick
to take the next step towards Jesus?
It may be that we need to open ourselves up
and witness of Jesus's love and kindness to us.
It may be that our action needs to help them teeze out
what Jesus is challenging them to be and do.

We do not sit back and say nothing...
Having carried the sick person to the place,
destroyed the roof and lowered them down,
we need to ensure that the possibility
of real encounter with Jesus
is not thrown away
because of our own timidity.
This is where Paul is encouraging us
to minister with confidence. Let your Yes be Yes!

We are not neutral participants.
Do we allow some people to have less than the best because we have been timid about sharing and encouraging the encounter that is critical?
The encounter with Jesus himself.

Conclusion
The reminders then that we get in this story are simple but strong

• Healing is a cooperative exercise. We have a responsibility to care for those with whom we are in relationship
• Sharing in healing requires commitment to see it through and deal with obstacles
• and finally to always remember, encourage and promote that we are bringing people to Jesus and to do everything we can to promote genuine encounter. It is Jesus who heals and who must be allowed to speak the word. We need to take this seriously
  

Letting go and discovering self

Readings for Sunday 12 February, Epiphany 6 :2 Kings 5:1-14 Psalm 30 1 Cor 9:24-27 Mark 1:40-45

In this week's readings we see something of the application
of Healing, wellness, and wholeness
as I was talking about in the last reflection (see here)
God wants more for us than we want for ourselves
The story of Naaman the leper
that we read this week
is a confronting one for all of us who think
we have our lives well under control.
He is a powerful, successful man
and yet he is sick.
He has the sort of sickness
that people will not tolerate socially-leprosy
Quite what this was in his case is not clear.
we have rather poor attitudes
to leprosy
largely what we have been (wrongly) taught. (see for example the life of Damien of Molokai)
Nevertheless it is something that would have taken
Naaman out of circulation,
perhaps by disfigurement
certainly because of ritual prohibitions
designed to prevent infection
---Primitive but effective---
Naaman, like many who become seriously sick,
find their life is taken over
and they are no longer free to do what needs to be done.
Naaman the handsome, the powerful, the successful is sick.

What to do?
He uses his connections to get to the doorstep of Elisha.
He will have done this sort of things many times before.
As a highly motivated person he is used to
identifying the problem
finding a solution
and effecting the operation.
This is how a highly successful person operates.
The only trouble is that sickness
is not a cash flow problem
it is not a stock shortage
or a management crisis.
If we are to be made whole
then we will need more than just management
or even skill.
We will also need openness to God
a fair degree of humility
and preparedness to change.
If you think about in-depth healing
or wholeness as we have been calling it
we understand that there is more to it

Confrontation
so he is deeply confronted.
Elisha is not actually over-impressed by his status
he can barely come out of his house
he sends an underling to communicate with Naaman
and Naaman is not impressed.
Let us look at some of the things that Naaman does
which might expose some of the issues

• he brings lots of money but his healing is not going to be paid for by lots of money
• he shifts the responsibility to another person, In the process that person (the king of Israel) is deeply stressed and he doesn't know what to do. We often do this. This isdifferent from sharing the responsibility by inviting others to pray for you. Healing will require that we open ourselves not just that we get someone to do the slog for us
• he needs to learn about simplicity, humility and obedience. Elisha is very offhand with him. He refuses to let Naaman think that this is the only problem in the world. This is hard for us to endure. In the end he is required only to be faithful to a simple process and to submit to that
• he is seduced by the spectacular. "‘I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?’ He turned and went away in a rage."...when things do not go as he wants then at least he demands spectacle

• spectacle that shows he is pretty special?; spectacle that shows God is taking notice?
  

Are you beginning to get the idea that there is a lot going on? Naaman needs to confront a whole lot of stuff in himself: Pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, lack of faith....all of these things will be up for grabs if we open ourselves to wholeness rather than just removal of symptoms.

Conclusion
Finally, the Gospel reading (Mark 1:40-45)tells of another leper
and the dialogue with Jesus says..."‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’
There is more here than waving of hands the man is asking to be brought inside the ambit of Jesus's life and faith...If you choose and we are assured that Jesus does choose
But he chooses not just symptoms
but fulness of life
wholeness
not just a narrow healing.
To us Jesus says, I do choose
...but we may have to confront like Naaman
our pride, our lack of humility, our notion of our own importance,
certainly our sinfulness
and be prepared to enter into the abundant life
that we are being offered.

....to be continued

Healing, Wellness and Wholeness

Readings for reflection for Sunday February 5th: Epiphany 5 - Isa 40:21-31, Psalm 147:1-11; 1Cor 9:16-23; Mark 1:29-39

20th Century SNAGs might have some abhorrence of the events
surrounding the healing of Peter's mother in law.

Peter arrives with a whole load of strangers
she's not well with a fever
Jesus heals her
and they seem to think it's then OK for her to get up and wait on them hand and foot.

Women will think this is par for the course!!
Of course we all know that it is the case that sometimes these ailments are indeed minor
They can come upon us quickly
and leave us quickly.
So we might assume that Peter's mother-in-law had a 24 hour wog!!
We have become rather fixated on the miracle cures of Jesus
that often we forget that this is not the major part of Jesus's ministry at all,
while it is important, particularly to those who are healed
when we ask ourselves what Jesus did and who he was
the healing is almost incidental.
We paint bigger brush strokes
and talk about things like:
Jesus dying for the sins of the world,
Reconciliation between God and humanity,
Restoring the human race...and so on
Healing almost pales into insignificance in the face of all this.
In this little story then we get a sense of the insignificance of healing in the broader scheme of things!
Some difficulty
This presents us with some difficulty
if we are sick, even with a head cold, or a 24 hour wog
it is all-consuming, and all we want is to be rid of the symptoms.
But the Gospels don't actually show us a Jesus who waves his hands
and symptoms disappear.
The thrust of the Gospel is not ...believe in Jesus and you will be healed
the point of the Gospel is
believe in Jesus and you will have eternal life.
God is offering us far more than healing
God is offering us wholeness
We sometimes don't get this,
in the midst of symptoms all we want is relief from the symptoms
But God wants us to have eternal life.
That is one reason why we see Jesus's encounter with those he heals
often have a little dialogue that goes with them
Jesus asks questions not just about the sickness
but about the wholeness.....Do you believe?
Do you want to be healed? What has caused this sickness?
And makes statements that are not healing statements but faith statements
Go and sin no more, Your faith has made you well.
Expectation
We should and can expect healing
but we cannot expect healing without wholeness
God wants much more for us, than we want for ourselves
The things that will contribute to wholeness
are genuine repentance and forgiveness.

• God will forgive our sins.

There will be healing of relationships

• God will bring about reconciliation

We will grow in faith

• God will deal with us in depth

Weak prayer
Our prayer may often seem weak or unanswered
Is it because so often we want far less for ourselves than God wants for us?
God will not play games with us.
We may only want superficial healing
But God wants wholeness for us..

Strong Prayer
We should critique our prayer for healing
for ourselves and for others.
Am I praying only for healing, when God wants wholeness?.
What else needs to be drawn into our life of faith
in order for our weak prayers to be made strong?
The symptoms are important to the sick person,
even if they are minor.
But let us not get fixated on them.
The preaching of the kingdom demands
that we preach repentance and forgiveness.
The preaching of the kingdom demands
that we seek to set free those who are captive:
to the motives and manipulations of others, to their own history,
to their misplaced psychology
The preaching of the kingdom that we address social evils like poverty and hunger
Don't pray for someone to get magically well.....if you are not
also prepared to stand alongside them
in their struggle to gain proper housing, to have sufficient means to be able to have a proper diet.

God wants not just "healing" as important as that is
we pray and work for wellness and wholeness.
not just a relief from symptoms
but also the permeating of God's life through the whole of our being.



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Power and authority

The readings for Sunday29th January 2006: Epiphany 4 - Deuteronomy 18:15-20; PSALM 111; 1 COR 8:1-13; MARK 1:21-28

I was once asked to say grace at a barbecue and my host said
"Well don't mention Jesus as our newly found Jewish friends might take exception"
I was a little shocked. But it is not hard for us to say prayers in the Jewish traditions
as at least Christians and Jews worship the same God
Spiritual issues
But of the curious issues of the Corinthian church
none was more curious than the controversy over whether or not
Christians should eat food that had been offered to a pagan god.
An equivalent for us would be
whether we should share in a meal
in which a pagan grace had been invoked.
It is far more confronting
than simply being asked to "not mention Jesus"

Would you feel comfortable eating lunch if grace went like this:
....We thank you gods of the sea for this fish and these prawns,
we thank you gods of the earth for bread and drink,
we thank you great god of thunder and lightening for water that nourishes us.....
Some of you like me, would feel a little uncomfortable,
but then we might think...well all this sort of stuff is rubbish anyway
as there are no gods but our God.
so it doesn't matter a hoot

Paul says, do what you will
but be conscious in your community
that some people are more sensitive than others.,
and what you find easy to cope with
others take offence at.

Today's readings give us some reflections about authority and power
Moses
In the person of Moses we see a key figure
who God chose to exercise power and authority amongst his people.
What this means for us is that
God's involvement with us, his people,
is not accidental
it is deliberate.
God has made and makes provision for us his people.
Moses job, and Moses struggle,
is to bring God's people into a sense of community.
It is a struggle and sometimes seems to evaporate, and to be remarkably precarious.

The idea of the "chosen person" is an important one,
but it has both positive and negative dimensions.
Positive in that we can look and see that God has provided for us
leaders and teachers.
God has provided for our welfare and growth.
Negative in that we can think that God's provision is for others
to do it on our behalf.
Both of these problems beset Moses,
Moses, in authority, was given a hard time
by this frontier people as if they were Australians!
Both of these problems beset us!
But what they both acknowledge is that Christianity
understands that God is engaged not just in some general way with the world
but in the day to day living of life.
and is drawing us into community with him and with each other.

Jesus
What Mark's early picture of Jesus reminds us of
is that the exercise of authority and power
will cause things to happen.
In this encounter with a demon
we see that Jesus uses his authority.
Although we often exegete this passage to death
to try and understand what exorcism means today
this passage is about showing us
God's life as lived in Jesus
is a life of authority and power.
It is authority and power in a spiritual world.

This might cause us to reflect
that drawing people into community
is not so much a political or social phenomenon
as a spiritual one.
When we talk about building community in our churches
in our country, in our families
in our work places
Do we begin to ask ourselves
what are the spiritual issues here?
building Community is a spiritual issue.
Exercising authority is a spiritual task.

Not many of us will be terribly worried by the issue of whether or not
the barbecue we are about to eat has been offered to an idol.
All of us however will have some equivalent
in the places where we are called to be and build community.
Where we are asked to surrender
the authority that belongs to God and God alone
to something that is not God.

Our authority is derived from Christ
through baptism
and that baptism calls us
into community
WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST
as we act and practise our faith
we can and should ask
:does what I do bring people closer to Jesus or drive them away
:does the way I live my life draw people together or drive them apart

We are people who live with power and authority
it shows us that God deals directly with us
and has made provision for our particular needs and growth.
Power and authority is exercised
to bring us into community with God and with each other,
we are sometimes lax and careless about this
and want to say...let's leave that to another
but we all know I suspect
that this is an authority
which we share and which we need to practise.
May God enable us to grow in love together.

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Jesus calls us

Readings for the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany: Jonah 3:1-5,10; Psalm 62:5-12; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20 for a display of all these readings go here

When we want something done
we are often tempted to say:
Put an advert in the bulletin
or make an announcement and ask for a volunteer
And my experience has shown me
that this is often. even usually, unproductive.
There are many reasons why this is so,
and we do not need to canvass them at the moment.

But today's readings show us that when God wants something done
as we read the scriptures
and reflect on the lives of God faithful people
God calls...individuals, groups
specifically and directly.

So today there are a number of insights
into what it might mean
to be called

Going backwards
Right at the beginning of his ministry, as Mark records it,
Jesus calls disciples.
This is a fairly curious event
It is done like this:
jesus makes a proclamation
...The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God
has come near; repent and believe in the good news.....

I wonder if anyone understood what he was saying,
in hindsight we read a lot on to it
but it is a generalisation
and it will only be fleshed out
as events take their course
and come to their fateful conclusion on Calvary

As Jesus moves on he invites the first four disciples,
Simon and his brother Andrew, and then James and John,
to "follow him"
Many of us would understand this,
so attractive is the person of Jesus
that we want to be with him,
you may have felt like this at a time when you gave your life to him,
when you were confirmed, or baptised.
Others of us just know the great joy
of always having had the privilege to follow Jesus.

What we can observe is that the four first disciples
can never have known
what they were letting themselves in for.
As the Gospel goes on it is clear that they misunderstand Jesus all the time,
they are at odds with him
and at the crucial point
they desert him.

What are we to make of all this?

Moving on
As we trace back through the readings

• Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that it is easy to be lacklustre about being a disciple. And that discipleship requires not just a general sort of adherence, but rather a commitment
• It needs the commitment that is like saying...this is more important than my marriage, this is more important than my grief, it is more important than that which causes me to be most excited. It is more valuable than the greatest possession that I have. It is is more important than anything in which I am caught up with in the world.
• He is not saying, I think, that these things are not important. But rather in his emphatic way trying to get us to understand the depth of commitment that is necessary if we are really follow Christ.

Similarly as we reflect on the story of Jonah
we note that God's called people
are sometimes unfaithful to the call
We say we want to be faithful
but we are not prepared to do it.
Jonah was told to go and tell the people to repent
...but he was frightened, unsure....and well we know the rest of the story
We hear today that
he is able to have a second go,
despite his failure
despite his stubborness
(even then as we read on in the story
it is not over)
So we have two more insights

1. Discipleship requires deep commitment
2. Discipleship admits of the sort of failure that allows us to mature by it

A pattern has now emerged

• God calls us to be disciples
• We may not fully understand what this means
• We may sometimes get it wrong
• We may sometimes be willful
• God continues to call us
• The call is not so much to do things as to be with Jesus
• this requires deep commitment
  

Measuring stick
As we hold up our own lives
I suspect we see this pattern there too
We know the sense of call
We may not be sure just what it is we are supposed to do
But we learn that we are taken there by being close to Jesus.
Sometimes we are bad at this, often we are willful, disobedient, arrogant.
God continues to call us
we are invited to be seriously committed.

I pray that as we face challenging times
as a parish, as individuals
that we may also pray for this strength to be more deeply committed.
For the courage to embrace failure
for the desire not so much to be successful, big or famous
but rather to be close to Jesus.

Have we the courage to exercise this source of discipleship?
I believe so
God gives us the Spirit to achieve this.
Do we have the will to do it?
We can decide...but will we?




....../

Christ in the world- Christ in our lives

This season is often called "epiphany"
In the Christmas story it commemorates the coming of the Wise Men to visit the Infant Jesus.
Thematically this event expresses the Christian Gospelmoving outside the narrow confines of Israelto all the people of the world.

So we think about God manifesting himself to all people.

This is in fact what the word "epiphany" means.

--demonstrating, showing forth, exposing,----

This is a most important theme.

Christ is for the world

not just the temple or the Church.

I often say my job as a priest is to stand aside so that people can see Jesus

And, indeed, I think that despite all the Church troubles in recent times it is the Church that people don't like not Jesus.

Where is Jesus in your life?

Where do you need him

Where could he fit?

Where is he reaching out to you?

Where Jesus meet us

Typically the words that trigger off responses

to these questions...are love, forgiveness, healing and intimacy

You don't have to be genius to realise hat we all crave these things.

I try to bring people to Jesus so that we may know his love, care, forgiveness and healing.

You may wish to pray for yourself that you might know his real presence

touching those places where you are most in need.

Lord Jesus, come into my life today

that I may know your closeness, your care,

your healing and your forgiveness

Lord Jesus, make yourself know to me today. Amen

Giving the gift

Giving gifts is a most enjoyable part of Christmas
(and receiving them too).
But all of us knows that great sense of satisfaction
when something we have given
is really appreciated.
The emotion is tangible
and the warmth is real.
So enjoy your gifts.
We give gifts at Christmas,
not because we are giving Jesus a birthday present
....if we were doing that then we would give the presents to Jesus, but we don't do that
Maybe we should!

But the gift giving is actually to celebrate
that our God is a God who gives.
St John tells us in the most famous of biblical quotations
"God loved the world so much that he gave"
and what he gave to the world was
"his only Son...so that all who believe in him
should not perish but have everlasting life."
(John 3:16)
So we give to remind ourselves
that to be like God
we are to be giving.

Two dimensions
Let's remind ourselves of a couple of dimensions of giving
that unfold for us in the Christmas story.
1. The most important giving is the giving of one's self to another person
Whether it be as a mother or a father to their children
or as a husband and wife to each other
or as friends in friendship
it is not the size or value of the material presents that is important
it is the degree to which we give ourselves, our time, our love.
(No one will lie on their deathbed and say ...":You gave me the biggest Christmas present ever"
But we may just say...when I was really in trouble you stood by me
when I had no friends you were still there for me)
Giving goes on throughout the whole of Jesus's life
it culminates not in his birth
but in his death.


The ultimate gift of God
is that Jesus gives himself up for us
and dies
in order that we might live.
Do we have that same sort of commitment?

2. Giving of ourselves will make us vulnerable

Relationships are risky!
We cannot escape from the fact
that if we are to truly give ourselves
then that will make us vulnerable.
In the relationships that matter:
with our families
our lovers
our friends...
if we are to give ourselves then we will be at risk.
Those who we love the most
are also most capable of hurting us
and we are most capable of hurting
...parents damage children and children their parents,
wives and husbands run great risk
true friendship is dangerous
Relationships are risky business.
But is it worth it.
The question is not
How dangerous is it?
But is it worth it?
The cost is great, but so are the rewards.
God loved the world
that he gave
so that everyone would have fulness of life
Indeed if we are to live a meaningful life we have to take this risk.
There is nothing worse than being cosseted and protected
We may be "safe" but we are probably lifeless...maybe even dead.
The risk of not making ourself vulnerable is far worse
and more certain
than the risk of giving ourselves.

At Christmas
The giving, whilst enjoyable, is pretty trivial
In life the giving of ourselves
is vital
it is entire
it is necessary.
It is risky....certainly
It is demanding...that's for sure
But it is the only way to go.

Making room

There is a lot of scripture that we can read to enliven Christmas Day: Luke 2:1-14, Luke 2:8-20, John 1:1-14, Isaiah 9:2-7; Isaiah 62:6-12; & Isaiah 52:7-10 are some of the lections set for that day

We are fortunate to have a new Bishop in our diocese, Jeff Driver
We have high hopes;
and in this "honeymoon period" we are listening carefully
to what he has to say to us.

When he was intsalled he asked us, the people of a very sad, and possibly sick, Diocese:
Do you want to be healed?
This is an important question
and one we need to ask ourselves properly.

Yet, I hear him saying about Christmas
Can we "make room for Jesus"?
This, too, is a good question.
It is one of the threads of mystery and poetry
that runs through the birth narratives.
We all know well the catchcry....no room at the inn.
This casual observation is also a hint at the real human problem
No room for Jesus in our lives.
Archbishop Jeffrey will no doubt be asking us....do we want to make room for Jesus?
What does such a question mean?
We could suggest that the question has three focusses:

1.Making room for the God of hope
2. Making room for the Gof peace
3. Making room for the God of love.

Of hope

Because at Christmas we hear a story about a baby
and babies' lives are filled with hope.
They are about what is yet to happen,
the promise that is to come.
We understand this pretty well,
when we visit a newborn
our words to that baby,
are strong and hopeful
...he looks like a footballer,
she has strong lungs
what a fine head of hair
As they grow
the hopes become more substantial, and complex
as children become adults we see that there is hope for independence
that there is great potential
that there is uniqueness.
We muck this up quite a lot
but at Christmas we need to take time to realise
that this struggle to make all this work
is what God intends for us.

It is how we become what God intends us to be.
So I say to you
encourage the hope in your children.
ENCOURAGE do not criticise
but rather voice the hope and offer the support
that babies demand and deserve.
When Jesus is born as a baby this is one of the things that God is showing us.
Fulfillment, maturity, growth
are like the growth of a baby
are what God intends life to be like.

Of peace
For most of us Christmas is stressful
as well as joyful
for the lonely and the sad
it can be incredibly depressing.
We love the closeness that it means to family and friends
yet it also exposes
the very lack of peace that the season proclaims.
We are more conscious of soldiers in Iraq
of difficult community tensions
of family pressures.
Peace demands that we address these issues
and Christmas is for us a sign that what we articulate today
needs to pass into reality in our day to day lives.
We can easily say "no racial prejudice", "no war",
on Christmas Day
but we need also to put it into practice from day to day.
Peace will mean simple day to day application
of forgiveness
at home
at work
at school.
Do you want peace, Jeff might say,
then practise it.

Of love
It is a commonplace to say that Christmas is about love.
The carols say it.
Love came down at Christmas.
We are at our most vulnerable in the face of a baby.
We are disarmed, most of us,
and just want to hold it and love it.
Even arrogant and tough young men
have been known to melt.
Do you want to love?
then love,
do you want to be loved
then allow yourself to be vulnerable?

There is much, much more that could be said.
If we want to know what Christmas is about.
Look not at Santa.
look at the baby.
Make room for him
in your life.
It may be that you cannot
put him at the centre
but is there a stable somewhere in your life.

Do you want Christ?
The he is yours.
The bringer of hope, of peace and love

Finding a place for the baby

Readings for the last Sunday in Advent. Sunday 18th December 2Sam 7:1-11, 16, Magnificat, Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-38

As we experience a lot of Christmas input at this time
One good question I heard asked about various school and church presentations was:
Why all these stories and plays with a Christmas theme
What's wrong with the story of the stable at Bethlehem.........?
There are of course many representations of that story
and it is rich in symbolism, myth (in the finest sense of that word) and cultural nuance
When in doubt we should allow God's Word of Scripture to do its wonderful work in our hearts
So take time this week to read the readings and just to allow them to speak to you.
As you sit through the endless Carol Services take time too to be a little more open
remember, as we see in this weeks readings, that Christmas is God showing himself to us in human form.
It is about understanding who God is,
and what God is about.
So we find that Mary, when confronted by the angel
has to begin on a journey of discovery
because she does not understand what all this might mean
^"29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be"
And Paul tells us at the end of Romans as we read today
"the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages ²⁶but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith"
The sort of message, that so puzzles Mary,
is God revealing in Jesus
what has been true for all time.
This is the overarching message of the Christmas story.
God is revealed to us
in the person of Jesus Christ
he is, what controversialist, John AT Robinson describes
as The Human Face of God
This is a description I find really helpful.
God cannot be described...he is indeed
"the mystery that was kept secret"
our philosophy, our history, even our theology
does not come close to fully disclosing who God is
if we want to know what God is like
then the fullest revelation is
Jesus.
So what do we see
We find at Christmas a deeply confronting story.
God chooses a young girl
about whom we know remarkably little,
in the short passage of this morning's Gospel
we know more about Joseph
....a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David
than we do about Mary herself
we know more about Zechariah and Elizabeth
than we do about their cousin:
he belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. ⁷But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.
What does this tell us?
At the very least
we are reminded that
God views people differently from the way we do.
We make different choices
about what is important
so we look for wealth, success, power and prestige
..God looks differently.
There is an invitation here
in the Christmas story
to look with different eyes
at the world in which we live.
In the reading from the Hebrew bible too,
we read of David's desire to build a Temple.
This seems like a righteous desire,
a good thing,
but it is not what God wants.
We do not always get it right,
we are often fixated on the material when God is inviting us
to look deeper.
These are two modest insights
that we get from addressing the stories of the Bible
rather than sidetracking it.
Making room
Part of the frustration for us at Christmas
is finding Jesus
amidst it all.
Let us not so much complain
about what Woolworths and Target do,
let us rather see the challenge
to point ourselves and others
to Jesus.
Ask tricky intelligent questions
of your youngsters:
Why did God come as a baby?
What is he trying to tell us by being born in a stable?
Why did the shepherds and the wise men come? and what do you think they said to Mary and Joseph?
What would we say to them?
If we get that close then we have done very well indeed!
What would we say to Mary and Joseph?

Life in Christ

Readings for Advent 3 Isaiah 61:1-11; Psalm 126, I Thess 5:12-28; John 1:6-28


What is your lifestyle choice? This is something of a modern question.
Today's readings invite us to identify our lifestyle
as Christian

How do you live faithfully as a modern Christian day to day?
Once again we have a pattern for faithful living
in each of the three readings.
What is striking
is that "faithful living"
is not lived out in a vacuum,
but rather is the act of living vigorously and actively
in this world in which we find ourselves.
Though many religious words are used,
the emphasis of the passages
is not on the narrowly pietistic
it is on the dynamically active
a life lived
in full communion with God
and totally engaged with human life.
Fully in communion with God,
totally engaged with human life.
These themes flow through all the readings
but in this reflection I will focus on the reading from 1Thessalonians

6Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰Do not despise the words of prophets,but test everything; hold fast to what is good; ²²abstain from every form of evil.

23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴

The call to worship
I am struck always when I read this passage of its absolute nature..."always" & "in all circumstances" & "without ceasing"
Paul anticipates here that worship will not be an occasional, Sunday-only, type of activity
It will be all of life.
Two points can be made about this.
One, we need to get down and do it!!!
Developing discipline, and life-patterns means that we need to commit ourselves
to action.
We need to do it.
So find the place and start.
Pray daily, for your family, for yourself
for your concerns.
Decide that this is a life-habit
that you are going to commit to and do it.
Try, too, to seize the opportunity to turn your day to day activities
into deliberate, unobtrusive prayer.
Some years ago I was asked by a woman
who was very upset about blasphemy
"What do you do you when people punctuate there speechg with "Jesus!", this and "Jesus" that!"
My response was that I try and use this as an opportunity to pray.
It's not always easy.
We can find our own little ways to be more attentive to the need to pray constantly.
One of the great benefits of afternoon and evening walks is that we can use the opportunity
to give thanks to God for our local environment
and to pray for our neighbours.
This may not work for you....but find something that turns your heart to God
is a GOOD thing
and we will reap benefits.
The great traditions of meditation call us to "mindfulness"
not just allowing our day to day experiences
to go to waste
While we might take this to mean that we "should take time to smell the flowers"
and we should
it also means that we should treasure our daily emotional and spiritual experiences.
How often do we have ups and downs...and simply not do anything about them
other than fret!!!
Take time to debrief yourself
and commit to God

The call to discernment
Life is hard work!
And Christians are called to live with a sense of what is true
rather than what is wishful.
Our life is about faith and not fairy story.
We are called to live as God wants
not as we often vainly wish we would liem God to operate.
If I can give you an example.
Problems are very much part of what people pray for,
I, and no doubt you, are constantly asked to pray that God
might act in certain ways....
whether it may be to heal, or to address a debt crisis,
...I sometimes get emails with things like ..."Pray that God might make my husband come back to me"
These worry me a little.
One thing I do know, both from the scriptures
and from my life as a Christian
is that God deals with problems!
But it doesn't seem to me that God makes problems vanish,
most often we are invited to have faith in God's grace,
to trust that God will be faityhful.
God most often shows us the way through issues,
and says....work with me.
He enables us to work through the awful stuff
He does not simply make it vanish.
One of the problems with this
is that we so often want God to be the Good Fairy
rather than the Almighty God.
The true prophets will call us to life of vigour and discipline
the true gospel will call us to service and sacrifice.
Paul reminds us that we should test the gospel
and live faithful to the Spirit of God

The call to holiness

Life is a call to holiness
--a much maligned word--
Paul understands it to mean
this active life of prayer and worship
which is engaged with the world,
not some 'pie in the sky' unreality.
It is not a series of "do's and don'ts"
but rather a lifestyle
characterised by this dynamic attitude
of orientation to the worship and praise of God
in which we seek to be 100%
focussed on God
and committed to the realisation
of God's destiny in our lives.
A destiny which far from being focussed on narrow religious goals
will be sharply honed in responding to the needs of the sad, the demoralised,
the outcast

to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
²to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
Isaiah 61:1-2

...This is our eternal destiny
our Christian lifestyle

Making space! -To Trust

Readings for Advent 2 Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85, 2 Pet 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8

I trust that you are all making progress with your Christmas presents.
I put to my children in the last few days
an idea that came out of the Christmas Bowl material
Let's give each other presents of about $5-$10
and then each give $20 to another cause.
They looked aghast...well if not aghast then askance!
Another hair-brained, unrealistic idea of that priest
we are (un)fortunate enough to have as a father.
The youngest one gets it...
...enraptured with caring for a girl in Tanzania
through a school project
it is easy to get her to understand
that $10 spent on her
---another Barby, a fluffy pen, cheeky knickers....or whatever
is here today and gone tomorrow!
But for the little Tanzanian girl
it can do so much more.
She was taken by the notion
that in Africa the wealthy send their children
to Europe as soon as they can
and so there is a "brain drain"
I am impressed that a 12 year old
can get this concept.
She understands that by supporting strong education
in Tanzania
then most people will stay if they can.
This stuff is fairly self-evident
if and when you think about it!

Comfort and Trust
Today we are invited by the Christmas Bowl
to reflect on the theme of Trust.
There is presented for us
and image of a God who we can trust
Amidst all our troubles and difficulties
and no one escapes this...
we trust that God will care for us and sustain us.
The readings tell us that God will
Bring us back...we can trust God to restore us
that God is ...patient with us
we often think God is slow
but God is patient
That God will empower us with the Holy Spirit
Even John says, don't be like me
rather open yourself to the one who comes after
and he will pour out his Holy Spirit on you..

These are promises in which we are invited to trust.

• God cares for us
• God is patient with us
• God empowers us

In our life
I hope that you might see here
that what is being offered is a chance to be real and genuine.
It is not unlike getting the Christmas present idea right.
There is nothing wrong with presents
there is an issue about proportion, and
about what is important.
We can trust God to give us the right gifts,
but can we trust ourselves!
Can the world trust us to deliver
on God's behalf
or have we been distracted by the trivial, the unimportant?
God cares for us and bring us home how do we care for others
and restore them
How do we act as agents of reconciliation
and bringers of peace?
God is patient with us have we given up on people,
have we stopped talking to someone who has hurt us
or have we settled for second-best in our relationships
God empowers us has our relationship with God
gone stale
do we allow ourselves to be open to the Holy Spirit
do we pray with vigour and with power
We can trust God
and we need to be trusted as God agents.

With shouts of acclamation

For the First Sunday of Advent see the readings: Isaiah 64:1-9; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37;
Some Christians are fascinated by the so-called
Second Coming of Christ.
This doesn't surprise me
and in a way it is good to keep one's eye on the ball
.....or perhaps to realise that the ball is still in play....
God's work is not yet finished.
And though we see and understand
that everything that is necessary to be done,
in order to reconcile
humanity and God,
has been done
by Jesus on the Cross
and through his resurrection
And God continues to pour out the Spirit so that this work of salvation
may be taken up by us
and that we ay live the new life,
yet there is also a sense that this is not all complete;
it has to be worked through and made real.
A weak analogy is that it is like a house that has been built
at great expense and with great care.
It is the house of the future.
Indeed one of my friends was telling me only the other day
about such a house that she is building in the next couple of years.
It will replace an old house
and will be designed to cope with all sorts of modern needs,
not the least of which is that she is older
and her lifestyle has changed.
It will no doubt be executed
and there will be a day when we will be able to say
...this house is complete....
and yet in a real sense it is only the beginning
....the ball is still in play...
the house has yet to be lived in
and that will open it up
to a whole new range of possibilities.
As yet undreamt of.
As yet unrealised.
The coming of the kingdom
When Jesus talks about the coming of the kingdom
he talks about it in range of ways.
At times it is as if the kingdom is something that will be instituted
at the end of time
and yet he also says "the kingdom of God is amongst you"
He can also tell his disciples to pray
"your kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven"
While the house has been built
it is yet to be experienced
and lived in
...the ball is still in play.....
we need to keep our eye on the ball.
Advent and Christmas don't so much point us to the second coming
but rather warn us that we should be alert, and awake
to the possibility of Christ's kingdom here on earth.

We have the heavenly image, the ideal if you like,
of what it might be like when the heavenly kingdom is realised
and Christ will come with shouts of acclamation.
But are we also alert to the signs of the kingdom
that are in our midst.
Are we sufficiently awake to see that there are opportunities
to proclaim the kingdom
right where we are today?

Small possibilities
A retreat I went on this week reminded us in a poem
that our life is worked out in the small stuff rather than the big stuff

Answers

I keep my answers small and keep them near;
Big questions bruised my mind but still I let
Small answers be a bulwark to my fear.

The huge abstractions I keep from the light;
Small things I handled and caressed and loved.
I let the stars assume the whole of night.

But the big answers clamoured to be moved
Into my life. Their great audacity
Shouted to be acknowledged and believed.

Even when all small answers build up to
Protection of my spirit, I still hear
Big answers striving for their overthrow

And all the great conclusions coming near.


Elizabeth Jennings

This kingdom that we are called to experience
is at least as much in the small answers
for us
as it is in the big stuff.
In a real sense, sometimes the "big stuff"
threatens the small things
and yet, for most of us, for most of the time
it is the small answers
that are the authentic ones.

The kingdom of God is close at hand.
It will be in our care for our children
and the care that we take in our relationships
the gentleness and the kindness
the generosity of spirit
and the day to day forgiveness
that God's kingdom will be known
on earth as it is in heaven.
We need at the very least to pay attention
and be awake for the coming of the kingdom.

Let us not be too distracted
looking for the stars
that begin to fall
(which Jesus tells us is not something that should essentially concern us)
but rather pay attention to our own little patch of earth.
And live in the house in which we find ourselves;
it is at least
in paying attention to the process of living that we
may discover the purpose and meaning
of this place where we dwell
and that God's kingdom
is in our midst.
This is our Advent Work!

The eyes of the heart

See the readings for Sunday 20/11/05--The Reign of Christ
Ezekiel 34:11-24, Ephesians 1:15-23, Matthew 25:31-46 two sets of reflections are contained here but with slight ly different emphases
Reflection 1
We are pointed to three things (amongst others) this week
as we think about what it means
to follow Christ as our Leader, our King:
Hope, care and justice
Hope
The Christian hope is not an idle optimism
which sort of says everything will turn out OK in the end
rather it is a way of looking at the world.
Not optimism, but world view.
Paul uses the expression in one of the readings “the eyes of the heart” (Eph 1:18)
When we look in faith what we see is hope.
We are drawn into relationship with Jesus
the language that is used is seductive
we have a “glorious inheritance” and “the immeasurable greatness of his great power”
But unlike power and glory in the world
we understand & experience
Christian life as one of sacrifice, dedication and suffering.
The hope is not drawn from idle optimism
but from Jesus himself who shares with us the experience of the Cross.
Care
Another image we see today is “shepherding”
perhaps we would be happier with a word like care
Most of us will not be called to martyrdom
as Jesus was
we will not be physically put to death
rather we will have to translate
our sense of commitment and dedication
into our day to day to day lives
and I suggest that the idea of shepherding or care
is a useful one presented to us as an ideal
We are to care for ourselves and each other,
for the world in which we live
and for those who have no one to care for.
Our care should be expanding.
If we were to do a Care audit now
how would we compare with last year
or ten years ago.
It is difficult to measure, but perhaps worth five minutes of our time this week
Others
Like all these issues we need in the first place
to scrutinise ourselves first
so often we see the failures in others very clearly
but are blind to the harshness
of our own insensitivity
and care-less-ness
A rule of thumb, given by Jesus himself,
look at the beam in your own eye
before we try to remove the speck in another.
Justice
It is in this sense that we note
that we don’t get this right all the time
and some will choose to not get it right at all.
There will be a judgment in relation to this
and how quick we are to make it sometimes.
But it is not ours to make
it is the judgment of God
and our part is not to judge
how defective, stupid or bad others might be
We often do this and forget
that the principle judgment
will be based on how well or badly
we have heard this challenge of Christ
and put it into practice.

It is tricky stuff:
but we are reminded

• our hope is in Jesus, and it is a hope full of responsibility and promise
• our rule of thumb is care, practical care in our own smallness of life-family, parish, friends, neighbours etc
• steer clear of the judgment that is not ours to make save to challenge ourselves to be more firmly committed to Jesus, with outcomes in practical sharing and caring for others.

Reflection 2 (longer)
Whenever I read Ephesians 1 I am drawn to that expression in verse 18
"The eyes of the heart"
I don't know that we fully appreciate what a curious expression that is
It is not so much a statement about the sort of "heart" that we should have
as the type of eyes...
we should see with the heart.
What does this mean, let me highlight three dimensions that can be taken from todays'reading:

Hope
Paul himself says

"with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power"

He is not here talking about some sort of idle optimism
---cheer up and everything will be all right in the end...
But rather a transforming hope which will change the character of our day to day existence
Although we are often seduced to filter everything through our brain, reason, and intellect
It is the "heart" that actually inspires us,
charges us up, fills us with passion and hope.
We can allow other filters, too,
to seduce us: success, wealth, prestige and so on
it will be the transforming nature of relationship with Christ
that will fill us with hope.
the relationship is both the source of and end of our hope.
We are filled with hope in so far as we are filled with Christ.
This transformation is not the transformation of the intellect,
or some material bag of goodies
it is, and will be
the conversion of our heart
to be like Christ and for Christ
Care
Ezekiel reminds us that
the affairs of the heart
will be like the affairs of the shepherd,
The word we often use in churches
to talk about caring for people
is "pastoral"
and that word strictly means
"shepherdlike".
It is the popular image of the people of Israel
used to small flocks of sheep cared for by the shepherd.
Jesus would have been familiar
with the sight of a shepherd
going slowly and carefully about his business of being a pastor.
It is not hard to come to the realisation
that caring ....being pastoral...
is essentially an affair of the heart.
The shepherd cares for the sheep.
I know this for myself
what ever else we may want to be and do
as a parish, as a family, as a country
will be expressed as we care for each other.
We are sometimes very care-less
with people's sensitivities and needs;
we can justify almost everything we do
no matter how bad
but if we set ourselves up against Jesus's standards
the standard of the heart
then the poverty of our own response
...no matter how rational, logical or clever....
will often be exposed to be shallow.

Why are our communities light on hope,
it is because we simply do not care
like Jesus cares,
with the heart.


Justice
Finally, as we draw all these things together
we note that the practical application
of the affairs of the heart
is justice.
There will be a separation between what is good and what is bad.
We, who so often misname justice,
to allow scope for the venting of our own evil desires
and for the hardness of our hearts
should recognise
with fear and trembling.
That justice is the application of love,
whenever it is less than that
then it is not just.
We will, by and large,
separate ourselves from Christ
when the time comes.
Unable to bear his purity
and integrity,
his compassion and forgiveness
sheep and goats will be separated.

We can have hope,
if we like Christ are people of the heart,
we can be people of the heart,
if we like Christ care from the very depths of our being,
we can be Christ's if we are committed to the application of love.

Giftedness

This is not a preaching but rather an apology for not posting last week....it just got to Saturday night and at some points you do have to say this is not going to happen this week! And this week the sermon blog was that thing
If you were disappointed or wanted to share thoughts on the Gospel in particular (Matt25:14-30) then please contact me.
Here is a bare bones outline of two things I did and talked about
Intergenerational
In our I/G focus we sat in groups of three and the short teaching was that God has gifted us all by virtue of our humanity, and by virtue of our Baptism. We often imagine that we are not talented or gifted and this parable really reminds us that it's the failure to use small gifts that is the failure not the fact that we seem to be less gifted than some others. Most of us...in the end...live in the realm of 1 talent rather than of 5!
In the groups(participants know each other quite well) were invited to spend 5 minutes answering a short questionaire about the other 1 or 2 people in their group.....What physical characteristic do you particularly like and note, what personality trait do you find attractive, and then to fill in 2 or 3 statements that begin...I see God at work in you because....
(We are not always good at this sort of affirmation)

People then shared their answers with each other quietly. And you had to sit and listen to positive affirmations about yourself!!

This seemed to go well

Homily
The same theme as above...it is not the fact that we only have 1 talent that is a fault but that we choose to do nothing that is the point of this parable
We are distracted by the fact that there is inequity...but we need to come back to the point....what do I do with what God has given me?
In addressing verse 29 " but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away" we should recognise that there is a logical contradiction here. How can you take away something from those who have nothing!!!.

My explanation and my theology tells me.....(as in the intergenerational session above)....it is not that we have nothing it is that we choose to act as if we have nothing...which is why this person is condemned in such strong terms.

In hiding our giftedness, it is indeed taken from us, and we find that if we do not employ what God has given us...then it becomes worse than useless and our life becomes sterile and lifeless.

This should at least pause to encourage us to ask...why does my faith not seem to work? why does my relationship with God seem shallow and/or sterile?
There is here an invitation to ask the Holy Spirit to show us where we are gifted and how we can use this giftedness? Do that this week!!

Lifestyles of the not so rich and the not so famous

Readings for all saints Day (see the Beatitudes Matt: 5:1-12)

In a world fascinated with extreme behaviour
it is likely that the local TV program
would be more likely to report Simeon Stylites (see picture at right)
than Elizabeth Fry or Caroline Chisolm,
both of whom appeal much more to me
than dear old Simeon.
He is what we would call a "hermit"
who lived an isolated life
on top of a rock pinnacle(or stylus...hence the name)
so narrow and so restrictive his lifestyle
that there was literally no room for others to enter in.
It is a lifestyle that few are called to follow,
and which most of us find to be a little weird.
Elizabeth Fry and Caroline Chisolm,
one a Quaker and the other a Catholic,
both devout Christian people,
Were women who saw the needs of desperate people
prisoners and poor immigrants
and understood their Christian witness
to be doing what they could to care for these people.
What we are reminded of is that "to be a pilgrim",
(the hymn of one Christian who spent time in jail)
is a different journey for different people.
One interesting thing about the passage we read as a gospel on All Saints' Day,
is that it also talks about a different journey for different people
...the poor, the sad, the gentle and caring,
those who strive for purity, those who long for peace,
many have been persecuted,
not just in Roman times, but in the death camps of Auschwitz and Dachau,
most of us have been mocked at one time or another,
whether by our neighbours, our schoolmates, even our family,
and certainly by those who promote
the lifestyles of the rich and famous as the most desirable one.
Different journey for different people.
We are not called to emulate every saint
and so we should not feel sad that we fall far short of their example.
But we are all called to make our own journey
and it will have common characteristics...

• a desire to be close to God
• an earnestness to move on and change
• a need to encourage others to discover that Christ is for them too.

Can we as we are inspired by the saints
ask ourselves......am I doing enough to fulfill my Christian obligation?
Indeed, am I doing anything,
is my lifestyle that of a passenger
rather than a pilgrim
Do I expect to be carried and for others to get on with the hard work?
We are all guilty of this some what,
look for opportunities for service, and worship
for enthusiasm and ministry.
And pray afresh for the renewing power of God's Holy Spirit
to change the lukewarmness of my life
to the invigorated l;ife of the saint.

Getting it right

The 24th Sunday after Pentecost(Propert 31)
Joshua 3:7-17, Ps 107:1-9; 1 Thess 3:5-13; Matt 23:1-12
The tantalising headings
Act in faith
Moses died in sight of the Promised Land
but that did not mean God had deserted the chosen people
or had become unfaithful.
As we explored last week
God's business is unfinished
and we capture this sense today
the life of faith goes on
even when the leaders, the motivators, the giants
...we call them saints...
have died.
Indeed we treasure and name this tradition
the communion of saints.
So Joshua takes responsibility from Moses
and his first task is not to bemoan the death of Moses
but to move on in faith!.
We pick up the ark and move on,
and it is our expereinece that the life of faith
moves from one generation tot he next.
Where ever we find ourselves in the life of faith
let us note the challenge of the current generation

• too big a job, too few resources
• the leaders of today are not like the leaders of the past
• things have changed
• we can't make ends meet

and move on.
We walk, not by sight but by faith
In God,
who is faithful to us.
It is easy to give up
but this is nto the walk of faith.
Where ever you find yourself to be
I urge you to walk on

How can we thank God enough for you
Heaven knows, Paul had a lot of difficult situations to deal with.
He points the early churches to a key Christian principle
Always do things in community
Understand that we are in this together
and you will understand a key principle to the life that God has given us to share
So we read that his steadfast prayer for the Church in Thessalonika is this:
...may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another
and for all, just as we abound in love you.
Gee! Those people who we try to share the community of faith with
can be tedious, difficult and boring.
They are often wrong, and plain dumb!
It will ever be so.
They no doubt say the thing about us.
So our prayer is that we may change and be kinder
and holier
and that we ourselve may be blameless.
Let us not pretend that everything will just slot into place.
We will struggle with each other
and with ourselves.
And in doing so
we will find that the promise of God is true.
Where two or three are gathered together
There am I
right amongst you.
Be faithful to the spirit of the Gospel
Finally let us recognise how easy it is
in the name of faith
to be distraced by irrelevance
...proper protocol, the right words and behaviour,...
learn what is important
and what is peripheral.
And that at the heart of it
God will be faithful to us.
So the wheel has turned full circle!
Practical implications

• We need courage to trust God and act

this does not necessarily come easily
and will need to be prayed about and practised

• We need to trust the community of faith that God has given us,

this too requires prayer and practice.

• We need to develop an intuitive sense of what is good, kind, and God 's will
• and trust God's Spirt

this too requires prayer and practice